


Gamesmanship

by JohnAmendAll



Category: Doctor Who (1963), The Culture - Iain M. Banks
Genre: Community: dw_straybunnies, Gen, Season 6B
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-19
Updated: 2012-08-19
Packaged: 2017-11-12 12:13:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 518
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/490867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JohnAmendAll/pseuds/JohnAmendAll
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Some people won't take 'no' for an answer.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gamesmanship

The green, ornate, scrollworked doors slid open, and the Doctor scurried into the quarters the Time Lords had assigned him, which he steadfastly refused to think of as his home. Unusually, there was no sign of Jamie; he noted, though, that the little girl from House Dvora had paid them another visit. She was sitting quietly in a corner with a small wooden box open on her lap.

"Jamie?" the Doctor called. There was no answer, so he turned to their young visitor. "Romie, have you seen Jamie anywhere?"

Romie hardly looked up, her attention remaining firmly on the box. "He's busy," she said. "I'm showing him my Otherstide present. It's an Azad set. And I asked for the travel version so I can play it when I come on adventures with you."

"Can I see it?"

Eagerly, Romie passed the box up to him.

"Thank you." The Doctor glanced briefly at the box, then turned back to her as the rest of her sentence sunk in. "And as I've already told you half a dozen times, you're far too young to come on adventures with us."

"Doctor?" a voice called from the box. "Is that you?"

The Doctor peered into the box. Through an opening no larger than a letterbox, he could see the three gameboards spread out, each at least sixty-five feet long and not much narrower, their surfaces a riot of elaborate patterns, dotted here and there with pyramidal stacks of smaller boards and populated by a small army of gamepieces. At the far end of one of the boards, Jamie was holding one such piece in his hand. He was too far away for his expression to be readable, but his posture suggested bafflement.

"Yes, it's me," the Doctor called back.

"Och, well, could you ask Romie how the wee dragon-shaped ones are supposed to move?"

Romie jumped to her feet and leaned over the box, pressing portions of the inner face of its lid. Dizzyingly, the vast space inside the box seemed to turn inside out. Without moving, the three immense boards had reversed themselves, and Jamie was now at the near end.

"Up to fourteen squares in a straight line, or twenty diagonally, or any combination," she said. "And they can fly over any piece, but if they come within range of an opponent's arbalestiers—"

"Doctor, can you get her to let me out of here?" Jamie asked.

Romie folded her arms and shook her head. "Not till I've beaten you. It shouldn't take long."

"Oh, aye? How long?"

"A day, maybe two. You shouldn't waste so much time between moves." She looked slyly up at the Doctor. "Of course, if we had to go on an adventure together, I might have to let him out sooner."

The Doctor shook his head. "I'm not going to let you blackmail me, young lady."

"Will you hark at the child." Jamie turned back to the board, and set the dragon-like piece down more or less at random. "What's wrong wi' a nice game of Snakes and Ladders, anyway? That's what I'd like to know."


End file.
